Ghost Child
by DarkBlacknoid
Summary: Have you ever wondered where Stal Children came from? Dampe, the gravedigger did when he was just a boy. Read about Dampe's unforgetable encounter with the creatures. Written for the ZFA contest. ^_^


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Ghost Child

By DarkBlacknoid

Author's Note: Since that cute little kid that wandered in the graveyard in Kakariko Village never got a name, I decided to call him Huet. Read and enjoy. 

It was twilight. The time Kakariko drew in its venders and shuttered their windows for another night of rest and safety from the foul things of the night. One by one the people would clear their small streets, retreating to a safe and warm home. The brightest stars twinkled into existence a short time after giving night full reign of the village. The nighttime sounds crept in with the darkness. The nightly chattering and clattering of the skultulas began as they made their way around, under, and above the buildings looking for food or some ignorant child to devour. 

When Huet's little ears grasped that sound, his cute, roundly face grew bright with a smile of all except two missing front teeth. That meant that it was night and Dampe, the honorable gravedigger of their village would be out in his lonesome graveyard looking for treasure and spirits. Huet loved visiting the old man. Dampe always had a new gadget or trinket to show him. And even on some occasions, Dampe would tell him scary ghost stories that the gravedigger himself had witnessed. 

The young boy looked out the window of their small, yet comfortable home longing to scamper away to the graveyard to visit with Dampe. He glanced over to his mother who was a beautiful middle-aged woman sitting and knitting quietly in her chair. Her auburn curls splayed over her shoulders without notice and her slender fingers working together gracefully. Huet tapped his fingers a little impatiently.

"Can I go now mother?" He asked in a voice that could be mistaken for a little girl's. He always hated his voice, his face, and his inadequate height for his age. None of the other boys in the town took him seriously because of his stunted growth. Dampe and his mother were the only two people that understood him. 

The woman's fingers stopped working and she sighed delicately. Her amber eyes smiling at her young son. "Yes, my boy, you can go." Her lithe form raised out of her chair and walked to the wooden door. Next to it on a shelf, a single lantern laid. She picked up the lamp and lit it. Huet was already bouncing next to her, waiting for it to be placed in his small hands. 

"Now, remember, stay away from dark corners and don't walk under any trees and--"

"--and don't let the lamp get caught in the wind. Yeah, I got it mom." He said annoyed but she only smiled and gave him a quick hug before Huet pranced from the door into their yard. She waved to him. "Be safe now!" 

Huet wandered into the night with his lamp held aloft. He could hear the chirping of the skultulas, but despite that he smiled. How many times had he braved the night and gotten to the graveyard in one piece? He had never had an incident and he figured it would never happen. 

The boy walked down the central stairs of the Village and passing the well he got chills. That happened every time he passed the well. Though tonight, he was in a hurry to visit Dampe, for the gravedigger promised to tell him about Stal Children. Huet had never seen a Stal Child, but listening to the travelers tell him about those creatures of Hyrule Field were even more scary than the ghosts of the graveyard. Dampe had told him that in his young years, he had come face to face with one of the fleshless carcasses of the Field. 

Past Miss Anju's house, Huet scurried down the long dark path to the graveyard. It was well past sunset now meaning Dampe had been up for awhile. The yellow light of his lantern suddenly illuminated the clearing that preceded the boundary fence of the gravedigger's keep. Excitement fluttered deeply in his heart and Huet quickened his pace. The small hut of Dampe's residence came to his light, but Huet knew the man most likely was not inside. 

"Dampe! Dampe! It's me, Huet!" He called into the night and then a flicker to his right caused him to turn. There, in the fresh light of his own lantern, Dampe the gravedigger stood in his hunched form. Spade in rough hand and spare-toothed smile gleamed on his face. 

"Huet, my boy, I've been waitin' for ya."

"Dampe!" Little, cute Huet ran to the old man and gave him a big hug. "I've been waiting all day to see you. Have you seen any ghosts tonight?" A sparkle was ablaze in Huet's large blue eyes. Dampe chuckled and lead the boy down the path with him as he checked the graves with a poke of his spade. "Not yet, but the night's young." He said in a suggestively eerie voice. Huet giggled with delight as the gravedigger played with the graves. 

"Can we sit by the big graves and you tell me about the encounter you had with the Stal Children?" Huet's little hands held the lantern tightly, with delight following Dampe's bowed form. 

"Sure, sure, that's a good idea. I've seen the ghosts of the Composer Brothers many times when I'm around their graves." Dampe gave the boy a crooked smile and he shivered in delight. 

The boy and digger sat among the three great headstones that dominated the graveyard's north side. Huet snuffed his lantern so that he could save the rest of the oil for his walk back home. A skultula scrambled through some leaves nearby and he jumped. Dampe chuckled and placed his lantern between him and the boy. "Don't worry, they won't bother us here." A grunt came from his lips as Dampe got comfortable upon the grass. 

"So, you want to hear about the time I faced the Stal Children and lived, eh?" He muttered and laughed when the boy nodded vigorously with large eyes. "I was no bigger than you are now when one day, I decided I would see if all the rumors about the Stal Children attacking weary night travelers were true…"

_At that time in my youth, Kakariko did not exist in the way it does now. The Sheikahs had their village there and my family and I lived in Hyrule Castle Town. I liked to play at night with the dogs when the gate was shut firmly to keep out the dangers of the Field. _

My mother disliked that I was fascinated with the night and wanted to go out and play in it. Getting me to go to bed at night was as hard as getting a mule to move when it decided to sit down for a rest. Finally, she got so tired of me being so stubborn she would tell me stories right before bedtime, that if I didn't behave and go to sleep when told to, the Stal Children would know I was awake and kidnap me. She had said, "You know what happens to children that disobey their parents? The Stal Children take them and they turn into one of those creatures! Forever roaming Hyrule Field in regret." For awhile that story worked. I had grown up afraid of those skeletal man-eating creatures of the Field and did as I was told. 

But one fateful night, I could not sleep. A fever had stricken me and I tossed and turned all night. Never had I felt so much fear. I was afraid that because I could not sleep, the Stal Children would know and come to get me. But the night went on and the Stal Children did not come. 

That next day, my mother took care of me and I was able to sleep most of the day. When night fell, I awakened. At first, I was afraid. The old warnings from my mother stung my mind, but then the memory of the previous night made me wonder.

"Why didn't they come?" 

With that question at my lips, I crawled from my bed to the window. Unlatching it and swinging the shutters open, I gazed into the shadowy image of Castle Town. No one was about except for the dogs. 

Curious and brave, I pulled on my day clothes and tiptoed out the front door. My mother and father had not woken so I relished in my freedom by slipping through town to the gate. It was closed of course, but I knew a way outside. To the right of the gate was a small wooden fence. I climbed that and found my escape route. It was a large tree I liked to climb and its branches stretched far over the wall of the Town. Up the tree I went and over the wall I came. I landed in the River right outside and quickly swam to the shore. 

A cool breeze from the south breathed in my face, making me shiver. Hyrule Field lay out before me. Its only luminance coming from the moon and stars, which was full that night. I was glad for that because I could move around freely without fear of true darkness. The world looked so much different without the sun illuminating it.

Without fear, I scampered across the thick grasses of Hyrule Field. I could barely make out the shadow of Lon Lon Ranch ahead of me as I ran with all the swiftness my little body would allow. I knew that from then on, night would be where I belonged. 

It had to have been midnight when I heard the screaming. I had propped myself under a navy blue sky, full of stars, resting, but upon the sound I bolted upright. The shrieking continued. For a moment, I just sat there entranced and afraid of that sound. What was it? What caused it? Finally, I got to my feet and ran towards the source. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. 

On a well-worn path to Hyrule Castle, I found the answer to my questions. A group of travelers, a family with their wagon and horse, were being attacked by about a dozen skeletons. I stood there in shock, paralyzed by fear of what I saw. The Stal Children had a hold of one of the family's smaller children, dragging the wriggling, shrieking body from the wagon. Her father (or so I assumed was her father) leapt from the wagon and tried fending the bony, clawed creatures away from his daughter with a short sword. The little girl squealed in fear when he dispatched one.

I wanted to help, but I didn't know how. I possessed no weapons and my frail body was pitifully weak. What was I to do? I couldn't just stand there…could I? 

A sudden rush of adrenaline and bravery flooded into my limbs and into my voice. 

"Hey!" I called out in a voice I barely recognized. The commotion then turned to him with a start. The Stal Children were distracted long enough for the man to grab his girl and back onto the stage. With feral cries, a few of the Stals attempted to climb up the wagon and reclaim the girl, but the father whipped his horse into a run. It jolted forward, running over two Stals and barely missing me. I jumped out of the way, hearing the man call to me. 

"Grab hold of the wagon boy!" 

I got to my feet as quickly as possible when I saw the Stals coming for me. Even though all they had were bones to walk upon, they were fast. Fear tangled itself into my heart and the courage I felt earlier sank into a vast abyss of forgetfulness. I heard the man yell out to me again, but I was frozen in fear and I could not respond. My eyes were locked upon the grotesque visages of the Stal Children. 

"Run, boy! Run!" I heard a woman's voice, the mother? She screamed desperately, trying to wake my nerves. My eyes finally blinked and the urge to run took hold. I turned, almost tripping over my own frightened feet, when I saw them. They were all around me now, blocking any escape route. Gasping with fear, I frantically tried to find an opening. There was none. 

A cold, hard hand snatched my shirt in its tight grip and I shrieked. More hands clamped onto my clothing and on my arms and legs. I struggled; trying to get free, but their grip was a vice. 

As the Stal Children carried me away, I barely noticed the family I had helped coming back. In an attempt to help me? To free me from these monsters? I could not tell, for suddenly the world went black.

I awoke, unsure of how long it had been since being taken. Though that wasn't as important to me as WHERE I was. It was dark and I could hear water dripping somewhere. The air was laden with thickness and cold. I shivered and curled my arms around my legs. I was sitting on some kind of moss and it was comfortable, but I still couldn't tell where I was. I wasn't afraid of the darkness. In fact, I felt comforted by it. 

Getting up, I walked in the near darkness to find out where I was when I hit something. It was hard and sticky, giving me chills up my spine. A thick, silky spider web was in my path. I pushed on it, but it didn't move. It suddenly hit me that it was there to keep anyone inside from getting out. 

My hair stood on end when looking through the tiny holes of the web; a Stal Child was sitting near. I cried out and fell back on the ground, clearly startled. The Stal noticed me then and turned around to look at me with bulging red eyes.

"Hi! I'm Plif! What's your name?" 

I screamed, scooting backwards. Did that thing just talk to me? My eyes were bugged with fear and my breath was quick. 

"Oh, don't be so scared, I just want to be your friend." The Stal Child said, curiously. "You can come outta of there. It's just the warmest place we have down here." 

I still wasn't sure about the creature, but when it tore down the web my heart seemed to slow. I stayed there on the ground for a moment while the Stal stared at me. It appeared to be smiling, but didn't skeletons look like that all the time? 

Finally I willed my limbs to move and brushed specks of debris off of my clothes. The Stal Child bounced around as I walked towards it. In excitement? 

"What are you?" I asked. 

"I'm a Stal Child," it said matter-of-factly. I fidgeted as the creature watched my every move. Looking around the area, I noticed it was some sort of cavern with an opening in the ceiling. Was this where they hid? 

More Stal Children milled around in different wings of the cavern. It frightened me at first when a call rang out from one of them. 

"The child is awake!" They said, and I could hear that message being passed around. Suddenly, a dozen of them surrounded me with large, red eyes. I almost stumbled to the rocky floor as they crawled all over each other trying to get a good look at me. For some blessed reason, I wasn't afraid anymore. Looking into those red, bulbous eyes, I just couldn't. 

"What's your name?" One asked me. 

"How old are you?" Another pressed.

"Will you be our friends?" 

I trembled slightly from the coldness, but no longer from fear. 

"Uhh," I started, trying to answer all the pressing questions. "My name is Dampe and I'm ten years old…" A murmuring of wonder passed over the Stals and I couldn't help but smile. 

"Dampe, will you be our friend? It's so lonely." The sad eyes of a Stal caught my own and the pain in them paralyzed me. It was Plif, the friendly little Stal that had greeted me when I woke up. 

"If you're lonely, why don't you leave here? There are lots of people in Hyrule Castle Town. That's where I live."

Shrieking followed and my heart pumped loudly. What had I said? Were they going to hurt me? 

"We can't go back home." One said through what sounded like sobbing. 

"We're not like ghosts who can move around wherever they want."

"Yeah, we have to stay here. On the Field." 

Struck by the strangeness of this development, I was silent. I didn't understand what they were talking about. Ghosts? Why couldn't they leave?

"Why can't you leave?" I asked finally. Plif struggled for words, hugging himself (or herself?) before speaking. 

"We're dead…" Plif sputtered. "They killed us. They said we couldn't leave until…" The Stal stopped there and another round of 'sobbing' sounded. It was more like the sound of quaking bones, rubbing together. 

In the midst of these skeleton children, I sympathized. I didn't know why. Before I thought and believed those stories about the Stal Children being flesh-eating monsters that devoured any traveler that dared to cross Hyrule Field at night. But now sitting with these Stals, I knew those rumors were not true. 

"Until…until what?" I asked, trying not to be so nosy, but my curiosity won out. 

"Until someone kills our murderer." 

Silence hung in the humid air. I didn't know what to say. To my knowledge Stal Children had been around since the civil war in Hyrule. Who would have been responsible for this many children? Who would be so heartless?

My courage returned. Maybe I could help them rest? They had a right to be free and rest in peace. 

"Who is your murderer?" I asked. The Stals were quiet for a long moment. They looked at each other. In fear? I couldn't tell. Finally, my friend, Plif broke the silence by sighing. 

"You won't like it. No one ever does. But we try. We try! We try to get people to understand…" 

There was a flurry of movement as the Stals tried to crowd me again. Pawing and groping my clothes, the Stals shivered with fear. 

"Please don't leave us!" 

"Dampe, you won't leave us will you?" 

"Dampe! Don't leave like all the others!" 

I fought to keep my balance against the shower of bony hands clinging to my body. They cried desperately, trying to keep me from moving. I wasn't trying to get away, but my air was being deprived of my lungs. I called for them to let me up and reluctantly they did.

"No, I won't leave. I want to help." I said, standing erectly, with a smile. Grateful sobs then followed and Plif hugged me, as did many others. "Just tell me. Who is your murderer and I will try to help." For a moment, the Stals still did not answer me. 

"The King of Hyrule." 

I nearly fell back. The King of Hyrule? The one King that was so kind and had brought peace to their land? I shook my head in disbelief and shock. Could that be possible? It wasn't true…was it?

"See, he doesn't believe us. I knew he wouldn't." A voice from the back said. Plif turned to face the Stal. 

"He has to believe us!" Plif cried with a quivering voice then turned back to me. "Won't you?" I hesitated. What was I to say? I doubted their claim that the King had murdered them. The King was so kind and helpful for his people. He made peace when no one else could. 

I looked around the faces in the room. All bony and pasty with hardly any variance. Once they probably had faces and hair. Once they were children. 

"I don't know…" I finally managed to say. "The King is such a kind man--"

"He killed us!" The voice in the back responded with hatred. "He gave the order. His men followed it and now we're all dead and we have to stay here." There was more sobbing from the others, but I noticed this Stal wasn't. It was larger than the rest and seemed to not like my presence. 

"But how could--"

"He did kill us."

"But why?" I asked, shaken and unsure. 

"Because. Our families weren't on his side. I remember…my father wanted to keep fighting when the King came around and made treaties with the other races. He didn't believe in the peace it offered and we were all murdered for our beliefs. If you don't believe us, just go to the Shadow Temple, and find out. It's all written there." 

I stood utterly still without a sound. 

"Will…will you help us?" It was Plif, with his wide eyes of anticipation. I had pledged that I would help but now I wasn't so sure. To end their curse, it meant to kill the one who stole their lives from them and he couldn't do that. 

"I…" I swallowed as all eyes stared at me. "I don't know what I can do. I'm only a boy…" 

The Stal Children stared at me, hushed and shaking. Their eyes round and sad, once would have been spilling tears but now were doomed to be expressionless. Plif took my hand tightly. Eyes pouring into me, waiting for me to announce freedom…but I couldn't. 

"I will try to help you…" The words finally left my mouth and it seemed the cave brightened somehow. I found myself under a pile of bony hugs--and kisses?--battling to get free so I could breathe. 

"Oh thank you! Thank you!"

"You're the first one to listen!"

"You'll be the first to help us!"

I lay there in their embraces. No matter how I struggled with how I was going to help them, all I knew was that I had to. They needed to be released from this dreadful existence. Somehow, someway, I was going to help. 

Huet's eyes were the size of watermelons. The night had grown quiet since the beginning of the story as if the spirits were listening. Even the skultulas were quiet. 

Dampe stared back into the child's eyes, hoping he understood the whole meaning behind his story. Never had he, the gravedigger, been touched by anything so powerful as the Stal Children's story. 

Huet seemed to shiver and Dampe looked about and saw the first licks of light coming from the eastern horizon. Dawn was approaching. He reached over to snuff his lantern and it seemed to snap Huet from his awed silence. 

"Did you ever help the Stal Children, Dampe?" The child asked with all his innocence and naïve nature. 

The gravedigger stood with effort, snatching up his lantern and grunting. He smiled despite the seriousness of the question. The child was a fine young lad. 

"I helped them by telling their story to others. Most people don't believe it but…" Dampe shrugged, starting to hobble back to his hut and put away his tools. "I think I helped them more than anyone else has. I still try to visit them when I can, but anymore I can hardly walk to the end of my graveyard." Huet followed at his heels, trying not to step on them with his young gait. 

Dampe stopped and turned to Huet when he was finished putting away his equipment. The lad was still staring at him with a questionable look. He laughed. 

"Go on, Huet. You better get home before your mother worries about you." He patted the boy on his shoulder and put a hand on the knob of his door. Huet seemed to wake from a dream. 

"Yikes! I was out all night!" He ran back to the tombs at the end of the graveyard to grab his lamp and then managed a quick goodbye to Dampe. His little feet passed the fence, then suddenly stopped. Dampe paused before going inside to rest for the day. 

"What is it Huet?" 

"Can I tell people your story, Dampe?" For a long moment, gravedigger and boy looked into each other's eyes. Each was unreadable and deep. Dampe nodded to Huet. 

"Yes, Huet, tell others about this story and maybe one day our friends can rest in peace." With that said, Huet ran back to Kakariko Village with a full heart and promise on his lips to help the Stal Children. 

Dampe stood at the threshold of his home for a long while after Huet left. He only hoped the boy had taken his story to heart and forever claims a different view of the country they lived in. 

With a tired sigh, Dampe opened his door and trudged inside. He lit a candle and then settled himself by his writing desk. As usual, before going to sleep for the day, Dampe opened his journal and wrote what the night had brought on. 

When finally the gravedigger finished, he heaved himself to the cot on the other side of the hut and lay down to rest.

~~~~~~~~~~

_On the last day of our King's rule and the first of the new,_

I have discovered today that our King, ruler of Hyrule, has been slain. No doubt by the Gerudo King named Ganondorf that has so suddenly claimed our country for his own. Darkness has spread over the land of Hyrule and more and more refugees from Hyrule Castle Town arrive by the hour. I was awakened suddenly in the noontime and have found myself busy with burying the dead they bring with them. Men, women, children all the same were placed in the earth with my very own hands. My heart is burdened with sorrow for their dead, but somehow I feel a strange happiness despite that. I know now that my friends, the Stal Children, are safely at rest with the removal of their murderer. I grieve for the turmoil our country is in, but now my burden to help those murdered children has been relieved. 

Dampe, the Gravedigger

Link blinked at the last entry of Dampe, the gravedigger's journal. He had read through the book as if it were a novel from the Castle's own library of the greatest authors. He couldn't tell why he had stopped to read this book before trying to figure out what Sheik meant by 'going to Kakariko' to find equipment he needed. But now he was grateful to have stopped to read it for he found the answer to what he should be looking for…and also the story of the Stal Children. He had never pictured those creepy skeleton walkers as once being real children. 

Silently, the Hero of Time placed the journal into his tunic. If and when he saved Hyrule from the clutches of the Tyrant, Link would place this book in the new library of the Castle so that all would know the story of Dampe the Gravedigger and his discovery of the Stal Children. 


End file.
